The Union Cabinet has approved a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for sending three Indian astronauts to space for a period of seven days. Announcing this last month, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the mission has been named "Gaganyaan".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the announcement of the project in his Independence Day speech.

The moon mission Chandrayaan-2, an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission about 10 years ago, is in the works.

"Right now Chandrayaan is scheduled from March 25 to April end. Most probably, the normal targeted date is April middle," Sivan said.